Thursday, October 15, 2009

The media liaison officer of the Archdiocese of Cebu said that Ricardo Cardinal Vidal did not approve the notice to the public against a former monk in the church-run publication Bag-ong Lungsoranon.

Msgr. Achilles Dakay, however, admitted that the Cardinal signed the notice which saw print on August 9, but the signature, did not mean he approved the publication.

According to Dakay, the signature of the Cardinal only meant that he approved on the grounds of the dismissal of Venancio Cabillon from the congregation of the Marian Monks in Upper Lindogon, Simala, Sibonga.-

Cebu South Mini-Bus Operators Association welcomed the newly-approved Cebu City ordinance barring mini-buses from entering the Cebu South Bus Terminal and giving operators the option to operate their own terminal.

The director general of the National Economic Development Authority has committed the approval of the Cebu Light Rail Transit System before the agency's investment coordination committee.

Cebu 1st District Rep. Eduardo Gullas said he got the commitment from NEDA director general Augusto Santos when the latter appeared before them during the budget hearing.

"He gave his commitment to me," Gullas told The FREEMAN in a telephone interview last night.

Gullas said he is also working for the endorsement of the project from the three local governments of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Talisay.

According to Gullas, the endorsements from the mayors of the three cities including a resolution from the city councils of these LGUs are needed for the project to be implemented.

The Bill proposed for the operation of the LRT from Talisay City to Mandaue City. It likewise proposed for the ordinary railway from Talisay City to Dalaguete in the south and from Mandaue City to Sogod in the north.

(UPDATE) Brace yourselves for another howler. The tropical depression with international name "Lupit" spotted by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) east of the country near the Marianas Island was seen accelerating closer to the country, as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

Gov't vows to pass Climate Change Act MANILA - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is set to sign an executive order mandating local government officials to relocate people living along creeks and riversides, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Thursday.

Due to the increasing number of families displaced by storms, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Thursday called on all local government executives to identify possible resettlement areas where families can rebuild their homes.

(UPDATE) The kidnappers of Irish priest Father Michael Sinnott had made their first call to the Columban fathers in Pagadian City on Thursday, through an emissary, Major General Ben Dolorfino, Western Mindanao Command chief, said.

MANILA - Zamboanga del Sur Governor Aurora Cerilles on Wednesday appealed to the kidnappers of Irish priest Michael Sinnott to talk to her and arrange a way for the delivery of the ailing priest's maintainance medicines.

Eleven military officers were ordered released from detention after their acquittal of coup charges, including the so-called "hero of Lamitan," Marine Capt. Ruben Guinolbay. But among those whose cases were deferred and who remain in prison are Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin, who have both declared their intentions to run for the Senate from behind bars.

MANILA, Philippines – The Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (Acto) will be opposing the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) decision to delist 25 party-list groups and prohibit them to run in the 2010 polls.

MANILA - Senator Manuel 'Mar' Roxas II was the top choice of respondents in a vice-presidential survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) last September 18 to 21.

Roxas was chosen by 38% of 1,800 respondents who were asked to choose only one from four other names--Senator Francis 'Chiz' Escudero, Sen. Loren Legarda, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.

The results were:

Roxas: 38% Escudero: 21% Legarda: 17% Binay: 6% Sen. Estrada: 6%.

Since Legarda is tipped to be the running mate of Escudero in the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), Legarda's ratings could increase significantly, assuming respondents who are for Escudero will shift their preferences to Legarda.

Binay will be the running mate of former President Joseph Estrada. Their tandem is set to be announced on October 21 in Tondo, Manila.

Sen. Estrada, on the other hand, will run for re-election in 2010. Assuming respondents for Jinggoy shift their preferences to Binay, then Binay's rating is expected to increase, too.

The vice-presidential survey was a rider or an additional question that was added to the same SWS survey disclosed on Wednesday which showed that 60% of Filipinos believe Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III would be the best leader to succeed President Arroyo when she steps down in 2010.

A private party paid for this "choose one only" rider question in the September 18 to 21 SWS survey.

Noynoy also ahead in single choice survey

Another rider question to the September 18 to 21 SWS survey asked respondents to choose which leader they prefer for president among four names--Senator Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino; Senator Manny Villar; former Pres. Joseph Estrada; and Senator Francis 'Chiz' Escudero.

Respondents were allowed to pick only one name.

The results were:

Aquino: 51% Villar: 20%Estrada: 11%Escudero: 8%.

Tandem survey

Respondents were also asked which among these four tandems they prefer: Aquino-Roxas; Villar-Vice-President Noli de Castro; Escudero-Legarda; Estrada-Binay.

In next year's elections, however, Filipino voters will be choosing a presidential candidate and a vice-presidential candidate separately, not as a tandem.

The SWS survey, conducted from September 18-21, 2009, with a sample size of 1,800 adults, has an error margin of ±2.3%.It used face-to-face interviews.

Gibo gaining

This SWS survey was conducted before tropical storms Ondoy and Pepeng.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said on Wednesday that although the administration candidate Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro was still lagging behind in the SWS survey, it showed that he gained ground, from 0.8% in June 2009 to 4% in September 18-21, 2009.

Remonde said he expects Teodoro's popularity to rise even further after the defense chief headed relief operations in the aftermath of Ondoy and Pepeng.

He said Teodoro's actions during the relief operations underscored the candidate's decency since he did not capitalize on the calamity. "No one can say that he took advantage of his position. He just did his job," he said.

Candidate to beat

Political analyst Ramon Casiple, meanwhile, said on Wednesday the survey only confirmed that Aquino is the candidate to beat in the 2010 election.

He said public support for Aquino rose after the death of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, on August 1.

He said other candidates must adjust their campaign strategy to cope with Aquino's surging popularity.

Aquino announced his bid for the presidency last September 9, 40 days after his mother's death. Liberal Party President Mar Roxas had earlier agreed to become his running mate.

In this survey, a list of names were provided to the respondents including Sen. Manny Villar (13%), former president Joseph Estrada (13%), Sen. Francis Escudero (12%) and Vice-President Noli de Castro (7%).

The decision on the recount and revision of votes in the contested gubernatorial elections in Pampanga against Governor Ed Panlilio is expected between November and December, Elections Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said Thursday.

The proposed Magna Carta seeks to help the poor to be more economically empowered by way of strengthening the social services programs of government, with the cooperation of the private sector, to protect the rights of the poor.

These rights include: the right to food by institutionalizing government food assistance/subsidy; the right to employment; free quality education; shelter and health services and medicine.

The authors said the intent of the bill can be realized by strengthening the existing pro-poor programs of the different agencies of government, especially through significant increase in the annual budget of said programs.

A recent report by a United Nations food agency said that even before the economic crisis pushed the ranks of the world's hungry to a record one billion, declining aid and investment in agriculture had been steadily pushing up the number of undernourished people for more than a decade now.

Unless these trends are reversed, ambitious goals set by the international community to slash the number of hungry people by 2015 will not be met, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

FAO noted that the world's most populous region, Asia and the Pacific, has the largest number of extremely poor people estimated at 642 million, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa with 265 million.

A lawmaker on Thursday urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to immediately sign into law a measure seeking a one-time amnesty for penalties on unpaid employers' remittances to the Social Security System (SSS).

MANILA - The online lottery system provider of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in Visayas and Mindanao posted an 85% growth in profits for the first 9 months of the year, fueled by a double-digit rise in core revenues.

Next week, the Philippines will open its first ever call center that only employs blind persons, a milestone in the struggle of disabled people to cross the digital divide.

With eight training rooms and three desks dedicated for outbound calls, the call center facility will be equipped with adaptive hardware and software customized to the needs and abilities of the blind.

Six totally blind, low vision and sighted graduates are currently being trained as trainors in Taipei, Taiwan, the headquarters of the the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC).

ADOC provided funds for the facility, a project of the Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration, and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired (ATRIEV) Inc.

MANILA – Market goers in Cagayan de Oro City are abuzz with excitement over the freshest and biggest harvest pick in Cogon Market—a giant singkamas (yam bean, native turnip or jicama) weighing more than 10 kilograms.

BAGUIO CITY - Organizers of the 21st Philippine Advertising Congress have chosen to hold the event elsewhere, depriving the city of much-needed revenue for its rehabilitation efforts. Slated for November 18 to 21, this year's Philippine Advertising Congress was expected to bring over 5,000 participants to the mountain resort.

LAHORE, Pakistan - Teams of gunmen launched coordinated attacks on three law enforcement facilities in Pakistan's second-largest city of Lahore, and car bombs exploded in two cities near the Afghan border Thursday, killing 39 people in an escalating wave of anti-government violence.

Flooding caused by Typhoon Ketsana prevented almost a thousand Cambodian schools from opening at the start of the academic year, keeping tens of thousands of students home, an Education Ministry official said Thursday.

Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao admitted he"s only at 70 percent condition for his Nov. 14 duel with Boricuan bomber Miguel Cotto but guaranteed he would reach his peak in the last four weeks of training.

MANILA, Philippines - One hundred fifty-three athletes will head the country's campaign in the Southeast Asian Games this December in Laos, making it the smallest Filipino delegation in the biennial sporting conclave in years.

MANILA – The 13th DanceSport Council of the Philippines, Inc. (DSCPI) National DanceSport Championship scheduled last Saturday has been reset to November 29 due to calamities that recently hit the country.

MANILA -- Before facing Chinese billiards expert Chao Fong Pang in Face Off Series 3 in Quezon City, Filipino cue master Efren "Bata" Reyes will lead the Pinoy invasion in the 34th Annual US Open 9-Ball Championship in Chesapeake Conference Center in Virginia.

MANILA – Smart-Gilas will play its first game as a guest team in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup on Friday, pitting Japeth Aguilar against Burger King – the team that made him the No. 1 pick overall in the recent PBA draft.

George Clooney has offered to adopt some of Brad Pitt's kids. The "Fantastic Mr. Fox" actor - who has no children - claims he owes his "Ocean's 11" co-star a favor and is willing help out with his six children.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – An anguished bodyguard, saying he had to tell what he knew about Anna Nicole Smith's death "or I'm going to die," testified Wednesday that he saw her boyfriend-lawyer Howard K. Stern inject her with a sedative at a time before her death when she was begging for something to help her sleep.

KATHMANDU – Khagendra Thapa Magar from Nepal, thought to be the world's smallest living man at just 22 inches (56 centimeters), has turned 18 and now hopes to be officially recognised for his record size.

Mayon Volcano released 1,272 tons of sulfur dioxide during a 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday morning that was way above the fluctuation range recorded in previous weeks, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said Thursday.

Stephen Leacock - "I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so."